A happy and healthy online community is a huge win for your brand, driving a host of real marketing and monetisation results. But how do you measure happiness and health? How do you track vibes?

Welcome to the world of Discord data analytics, where you can decode the vibe of the community and turn that into actionable insights. Follow this step-by-step walk-through to learn how these tools help you understand your community, or watch our video guide to Discord's data analytics to see how easy it is to do.

Getting started with your dashboard

Levellr’s analytics dashboard is your key for unlocking the treasure trove of data you're collecting through your Discord server. The first steps are connecting your Discord server to your Levellr dashboard and setting up your customised landing page - see our easy-to-follow guides now available on Leveller's YouTube channel. When that's done, read on.

The high-level view: Engagement dashboard

When you access your Levellr dashboard, your default view is the Engagement Dashboard. This section helps you measure how actively your community is engaging with your server.

The first thing you’ll notice is a bar chart displaying the total messages and emoji reactions in your Discord server. The blue bars represent messages, while the yellow bars represent emoji reactions. If you prefer, you can switch to a line chart for a different perspective, and you’re able to download these visuals for your records or to show to stakeholders who need to see how the community is performing.

One of the standout features is the ability to customise the time frame. Whether you're measuring a specific campaign's success or looking at short- and long-term trends over different lengths of time, the custom date range picker allows you to analyse activity for any period.

The taking part that counts: Participation rate

The total messages and reactions are a great start to understanding your community. Go deeper by looking at the all-important community participation rate.

This is the metric to study when assessing the impact of specific campaigns or content. It shows the percentage of members who were active during a selected time period, offering a more accurate glimpse of how well your content or events are performing. For instance, if your participation rate is 37%, that means 37% of all your Discord members engaged with your server during that time.

You can also see total engagement figures, broken down by messages and reactions, giving you a granular look at the community’s activity.

Channel your efforts: Top 10 channels

Not all channels are created equal - some naturally see more engagement than others. The Top 10 channels view allows you to see where the most activity is happening.

Seeing these patterns helps you adjust your strategy accordingly. For example, if you notice that the Fan art channel has a 68% participation rate, you might consider hosting more fan art competitions to keep that momentum going and bring in members who haven't discovered it yet. Similarly, if your Memes channel is thriving with a high participation rate, you’ll know your community enjoys lighthearted, creative content. And if a channel isn't very busy? No problem, just rename it to shift direction, or simply close it and try something else.

Info like this isn't just useful within your server - when you get a sense of what your fans like (and dislike), that insight can shape the content you try out on your other channels.

Know your audience: Audience dashboard

Next up is the Audience dashboard, which provides insight into the size and growth of your community. This section is essential for understanding how much your server is growing and identifying the impact of promotional efforts.

Here, you can track the total number of members and see your opt-in rate for marketing consent such as newsletters or email campaigns. If you find your opt-in rate isn't where you'd like it to be, this is a good opportunity to boost your messaging around the benefits of opting in.

Timing is everything: Popular days and times

One of the most valuable tools in the Audience Dashboard is the Popular days and times feature. Knowing when your community is most active allows you to plan your content drops and events for maximum engagement.

For example, if most of your members are online on Tuesdays at 7 PM, that’s the ideal time to host an event or share a major announcement.

This data can also help you time external promotions, such as Instagram stories or newsletters, ensuring they coincide with high-traffic periods. When new members join during peak activity times, they arrive when the community is at its busiest and best. When they're hooked from the start, they're more likely to get involved and stick around - a major boost to retention.

How to build and grow a Discord community

At Levellr we work with clients from music artists like Fall Out Boy to global brands like Starbucks, driving real marketing and monetisation results. Whatever your vertical, a community is an essential tool for empowering your fans to engage with the conversation, spend money with you and become brand advocates shouting about how much they love your brand.

Armed with crucial data analytics, our community management expertise and simple but powerful tools, you'll have the insights you need to nurture a thriving community. For more on the simple but powerful tools that help you achieve all this, subscribe to Levellr on YouTube and see more step-by-step video guides to our key features and functionalities.

To learn more about how the data you can collect from a Discord community, contact Levellr today.